Ancient
by Parker K. Harvelle
Summary: AU: Dawn Summers was never a normal girl, before a year ago she wasn't even a human girl at all. Now with the key unlocked inside her and being anything but human she decided LA is a better place to be after taking the news of Buffy's death to Angel.
1. Chapter 1

****Title**: Ancient  
><strong>Author<strong>: **Dark Ariana****  
><strong>Fandom<strong>:** BtVS/Ats**  
><strong>CharacterPairing**: **Angel/Dawn, Spike/Buffy**  
><strong>Genre<strong>: **Drama/Angst/Romance/Action/Supernatural**  
><strong>Rating<strong>: **R**  
><strong>Summary<strong>: **Dawn Summers was never a normal girl, before a year ago she wasn't even a human girl at all. Now with the key unlocked inside her and being anything but human she decided LA is a better place to be after taking the news of Buffy's death to Angel.**  
><strong>Word Count<strong>: **3,279**

****††††††††††**  
><strong>

**Ancient**

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Buffy was supposed to be here, laughing at her for her newest teen drama, glaring at Spike and telling him to shut up. She'd never thought she'd miss how the two never seemed to get along, or how Buffy would threaten to stake the bleached blonde vampire. But she did, and most of all she missed her sister.

_"Here."_

_"Buffy, it hurts."_

_"I got it. Come here. You're gonna be okay."_

The words floated back to her now, if only she'd be able to help. If only she'd realized what Buffy intended to do then maybe she could have jumped before her sister got the chance. It may seem selfish but part of Dawn blamed Buffy, blamed her for having a death wish because that was essentially what it was. True, Buffy had jumped in her place and had saved the world and Dawn but the world would have been better off if she had never existed.

She hadn't existed until a little under a year ago had she, at least not in this form. Self loathing was a train she'd ridden before, she wasn't even human and yet she had memories of years before now. Some good, some not so good. She'd never been the sweet innocent girl some might think she was. Underneath it all Buffy had been the good daughter, and Dawn, well...Dawn had been the questionable one. But you'd be hard pressed to prove it, she was a devious one, or so her Aunt Arlene used to say.

_"What are you doing?"_

_"I have to jump. The energy."_

_"It'll kill you."_

_"I know. Buffy, I know about the ritual. I have to stop it."_

_"No."_

She clenched her fist as she sat with the other Scoobies. Sometimes she wondered if she should even attempt to sit with them, she wasn't one. She was an outsider. She always had been, even back before the high School had been blown up. She was Dawn Summers, pretty, smart, known to hang with the older kids - namely Cordelia Chase and the weird trio, Aka the Scoobies.

Though truth be told none of that had been real, and she'd only went to Sunnydale High for two years before it was blown to smithereens. A sophomore, but still well known for being the younger sister to the weird Buffy Summers. Sometimes she resented her sister for that. For actually having friends when they had moved here. She had been twelve going on thirteen, and jaded from life in Los Angeles. There was a whole back story there, having to do with her father's work, Buffy and her own stupidy but that was not one she wanted to dwell on for the sack of her sanity.

_"Daw..." _

"Dawn!" Dawn snapped her head in Willow's direction as she came out of her thoughts. Her curly/wavy dark hair flying over her shoulder as she did. Her big blue eyes as big as quarters. Everyone was staring at her.

"What?" Dawn asked. "Sorry I spaced out. Did you uh, say something?"

"We were discussing the plans, now that..." Willow's voice broke off for a moment before continuing. "...Buffy's gone."

If Willow thought she was fooling Dawn with her act of cool collected nerves she was failing miserably. After all, you couldn't bullshit and bullshiter. Dawn knew Buffy was dead and she was grieving, mourning the lost of both her Mother and Sister in the same year, within months of each other, but not even she was trying to deny the truth. They were gone and they weren't coming back, her mother's death had made that clear to her.

"Oh," Dawn said, wondering briefly if that sounded to nonchalant, too cold? "Right, plans. Are we going to tell everyone or what? I mean it might be a good idea to keep it secret with the demons all too happy to dance over her grave or worse." Dawn wasn't the only one to wince at that.

"But I think she deserves to be recognized, not pushed aside were only so many know where she is."

"I know Dawnie," Willow said sadly. Tara rubbed her girlfriends arm. "But the demons can't know the Slayer is gone." Xander sighed.

"Your right Dawn, but what can we do? The Hellmouth needs a Slayer? We need her."

"What about a Key?" Dawn asked. "We can play if off as if I am the new Slayer. With the awakening of the Key's powers I am as strong if not stronger then one."

Giles sighed, taking his glasses off to clean them for the up-tenth time that night. "I appreciate th-the offer Dawn, but your still human and if something happened to you Buf-Buffy would never forgive us."

"Not technically human Giles," Dawn said her mouth drawn in a tight line. "Spike would be with me..."

"Damn right I would be," Spike spoke up for the first time. "I wouldn't leave the nibblet to her lonesome fighting evil. She may be all godly now but she's still kill-able."

"Thanks Spike," Dawn said, the sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Be as it may I think Willow is right. The world can't know the Slayer is..de-gone," Giles said.

"Does anyone else think Deadboy Jrs. concern for Dawn is scary and little more then gross?" Xander asked and everyone looked at him as if he'd grown a second head.

"The nibblet is like a sister to me," Spike said glaring at the boy. It was obvious to anyone but Xander and possibly Giles that Spike had been in love with Buffy - soul or no soul. Dawn had noticed first, they'd spent hours talking about it, she'd found it rather amusing and sweet.

"Whatever deadboy," Xander said and Dawn's head snapped in his direction. Deadboy, right, how could she have forgotten.

"Deadboy," she muttered.

"Now bit, I know I annoy ya sometimes but that's no reason to be hating on me," Spike said clearly hurt and Xander snickered. Dawn rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"No, not you. Angel!"

"What about him?" Xander asked, his mood now farther south then before. Everyone else was just as confused before Willow's eyes widened and she gasped.

"We didn't tell him, no one has told him!" she exclaimed.

"Angel doesn't know Buffy's dead," Dawn said and she did not fail to notice the flinches from the others. Really, she was seventeen not stupid. She could smell denial a mile away.

"Someone needs to go tell him," Tara said, for once not stuttering over her words. She'd been getting better at that, the death of Buffy only a few days ago having had a hand in that. It was amazing really, it had been almost three days since Buffy had died, but it felt like one endless day.

"Well I can't and Xander can't," Anya said. "I have the store to manage and money to protect. Xander has to stay and help me and have sex with me latter." Dawn chuckled.

"To much information Anya, way to much," she said.

"I can't leave either, I'm afraid I must stay here," Giles said.

"I've never met him be-before," Tara answered.

"Don't look at me I won't have any part in seeing the poof. He'd sooner stake me then listen," Spike scuffed. Willow sighed and was about to speak, probably to volunteer when Dawn interrupted.

"I'll go," she said. Everyone looked at her instantly.

"No!" Xander.

"She'll go." Anya.

"Surely..." Giles.

"Not bloody likely!" Spike.

Dawn sighed the voices getting on her nerves.

"Shut up!" she yelled. "Buffy was-is my sister and if I want to go to LA and tell Ange the news then I will. I'm Seventeen guys, older if you take in the fact I'm an Ancient Key, I can go to LA without getting slaughtered."

"But-but your wound," Tara said and Dawn put a hand over her abdomen wincing at the tenderness.

"It's almost healed completely, being the key gives me faster healer, almost as fast as a vampire. It's just tender that all. "

"I don't think she should go," Xander said, he didn't like Angel and he didn't want Dawn around him.

"Frankly Xander, I don't give a damn."

Spike snorted. "Bit's quoting movies now," he said.

"I'll take the news to Angel. He should hear from me anyways," Dawn said. "No arguments." Xander and Giles closed their mouths instantly.

"Good, we'll both be here for the funeral," Dawn said and stood up, leaving to go upstairs to Buffy's room where she'd been sleeping since her death.

**††††††††††**

"Dawn are you sure you want to do this?" Xander asked as he helped her put her bags in Spike's trunk.

"Your acting as if I'm walking to my death," Dawn said with a chuckle.

"With Deadboy you never know." Xander shrugged and Spike snorted from inside the car. Dawn turned, glaring through the passenger door at Spike being the only other one with supernatural hearing that could have heard him.

"Xander I appreciate it, but I'm going. I'll be back in two days in time for the funeral." Dawn leaned in to hug him before pulling back a smile on her face but it wasn't a true smile, not like the ones she'd given a few months ago before all this death.

"Be careful Dawnie!" Xander called as Dawn entered the car.

"Hey, I'm like supergirl now so don't worry about me. K?" She shut the car door and with a squeal the car was disappearing into the distance. Xander sighed.

"Something tells me this isn't going to end well." Little did he know it wouldn't, at least not for his sanity.

**††††††††††**

Dawn sighed as she sat in the lobby of the Gothic like hotel. She had been disappointed to find Angel wasn't here, neither was his gang either. She was determined though to stay in the hotel until they returned. How could she not, after all it had been Angel that brought her to LA. The only downside was the moment she got there she wanted to get out just as quick.

She may only be seventeen but she had a history with LA and it all came back to the center of evil in the city of Angels. Hopefully she could get in and out without her name getting back to them. She sneered to the thoughts in her heads, they were probably celebrating the death of a thorn in their side, the Slayer. They must still be bitter she left them high and dry after a year of being their little puppet.

_"I have to. Look at what's happening."_

_"Buffy, you have to let me go. Blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing, it'll never stop."_

_"You know you have to let me. It _has to have the blood." Dawn whispered the last part out loud as she shook the memories away. Forcing the tears back she stared at the ground, running a hand through her messy hair. She hadn't bothered with fixing it before leaving Sunnydale or makeup.

The most she bothered with was to dress nicely. A pair of skinny leather pants, her favorite pair of lace up ankle boots, both in black of course. She'd also thrown on a form fitting black spaghetti strap tank and over that her sister's favorite red off the shoulder top. Even though Buffy and her were not the same height the shirt had always been a little big on the older blonde Slayer. Her Jewelry was simply what she'd thrown on, the cross necklace and ring both something she wore almost everyday anyways.

She lost time of how long she waited. She'd moved only once and that was to see if Angel had anything in his fridge. In the end she ordered a few large pizza's, she didn't know if Angel or the others on his team would be in the mood to eat after her news but she had to eat and she'd be there for a day or two.

Maybe longer, Dawn thought.

The Others were obviously not interested in her, she was going to be Eighteen before long, well okay maybe it was still a year away till next may but she was still going to be a legal adult before long. She was also much older then that to begin with, and she knew they blamed her for Buffy's death. At least a part of them did, Spike might be the exception.

She didn't blame them, she wasn't real, at least not in the sense that their memories were real. But she had moved on from that, sixteen years of her life may have been fake but she had a year of real memories, if not more and that was what mattered to her. She just wished Buffy and her mother were here to share real memories with her.

It was dark before she heard motions outside, and voices. She recognized all but two.

"Trust me. Tacos everywhere. And soap!" Cordelia. She had heard the girl was working with Angel, a seer now, but she had never been sure the rumors were true.

"Yo, that portal jumping is a fun ride. We sell it to a theme park we could get paid!" A voice she didn't know, but obviously male.

"Okay. Can I say it? I wanna say it." Angel. She smiled sadly, she'd always had a rocky relationship with the brooding vampire. She'd had a crush on him when they'd first moved here and she'd found him and Buffy in the kitchen, his shirt off.

The crush had faded though as she realized Buffy had won that war, and truthfully she didn't think she had a chance anyways so she'd moved on and her next crush had been Xander. She chuckled silently, now that she was older she saw Xander as a older brother, definitely not dating material. For some reason though the thought of seeing Angel after a year made her heart feel tight, strange

"Say what?" Wesley. He had been Buffy's third watcher, after Giles had been fired. She had not liked him much, too stuck up but he had been sort of cute in the geeky way back then. She wondered if he had changed any since then.

Dawn looked up just as Angel pushes the double doors open, walking into the lobby with a smile Dawn had never seen on him before. She had to admit, he looked good smiling like that, more angelic if that was possible for the vampire with the angelic face. He looked the same, but the smile changed him to lengths that she almsot didn't recognize him.

"There's no place like..." Angel trails off as he sees Dawn sitting hunched up on one of the chairs in the lobby. Three pizza boxes on the table in front of her making it obvious she'd been waiting a while. It had been a little over a year since he'd seen the younger summer's woman and he noticed instantly how different she looked, older, but he figured she'd taken more after her father since unlike Buffy and Joyce she didn't have the blonde locks or green eyes. He'd never seen Hank Summers to know.

Angel's smile vanishes almost as fast as his thoughts as his brown eyes connect with crystal blue, blue eyes that always reminded him of another pair of blue eyes he'd rather forget and he saw the cold grief displayed in her eyes and on her young face.

"Dawnie?"

"What's..?" Cordelia began as she stared at the youngest Summers girl. She remembered Dawn, she was older now but still that fashion sense that made her wounder if it had skipped a generation. Along with that skin which was obviously handed down from Joyce to the youngest. She remembered teasing Buffy about it having skipped her for the younger sister. Now a tight coil in her stomach hit her, something was wrong. Something had happened, and she couldn't help but blame herself.

Dawn slowly got up, never taking her eyes of Angel.

"Angel I am so sorry," Dawns voice cracked as she said this, tears forming in her eyes. It reminded Angel that unlike the person Dawn had always reminded him a little of she had emotions, she had feelings she just hid them well. It tore at him to see her cry and he knew only one person could get that reaction out of her willingly in front of other people.

Buffy. God no, please not her. Angel's thoughts were like a chant repeating this over and over again. But he knew it was in vain.

"It's Buffy," he whispered softly.

"Buffy?" Fred asked quietly and Cordy sighed as Wesley looked down in quiet grief for the vibrant Slayer he'd known.

"His uh...ex-girlfriend," Cordy whispered back to the girl. "She was the Slayer."

"How?" Angel asked and Dawn sighed.

"Sit down, this may take a while."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So my newest story. I hope you all like it, and I know many don't like Dawn but she is the main character of this story. She will be a bit OOC since she is older then in canon. I think she was fourteen in canon when Glory came but in this story she was already seventeen. Please review, it really makes my day to know what you all think**. **One more thing, this is AU after Season 5 of Buffy and Season 2 of Angel.**


	2. Chapter 2

****Title**: Ancient  
><strong>Author<strong>: **Dark Ariana****  
><strong>Fandom<strong>:** BtVS/Ats**  
><strong>CharacterPairing**: **Angel/Dawn, Spike/Buffy**  
><strong>Genre<strong>: **Drama/Angst/Romance/Action/Supernatural**  
><strong>Rating<strong>: **R**  
><strong>Summary<strong>: **Dawn Summers was never a normal girl, before a year ago she wasn't even a human girl at all. Now with the key unlocked inside her and being anything but human she decided LA is a better place to be after taking the news of Buffy's death to Angel.**  
><strong>Word Count<strong>:**3,377**

****Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize.****

**††††††††††**

**Chapter 2: Paradise  
><strong>

Angel couldn't believe it. Buffy was dead, after everything she'd survived, everything she'd lived for she was dead. It wasn't like last time, when he opened his eyes again she wouldn't be standing with him, she wouldn't be alive again.

"I'm sorry," Dawn said as she looked at him. "I tried to jump myself, but she wouldn't let me. She actually hit me to stop me, she'd never actually hit me before."

"She hit you?" Cordelia asked shocked. Dawn snorted.

"I was trying to talk her out of it, I went to push her away from the edge and jump myself when she punch me. She said she was sorry and that I had to live, for her, and then she was gone." There were tears rolling down her cheeks now and she was shaking softly.

"I'm sorry about your sister," Fred said softly, not really all that comfortable at the moment. Cordelia stood then and looked from the others to Fred.

"I'm going to go set Fred up in a room and order her some tacos. Unless she wants pizza," Cordy said looking at the once Pylea cow slave who smiled slightly.

"Pizza is fine." Dawn smiled at Fred as she looked away from Angel who appeared to be in shock, a few tears making there way from his brown eyes. She picked up the middle box and handed it to Cordelia.

"It's just cheese, you might want to heat it up some," she told the oddly dressed seer.

"Uh, Wes and I are gonna go...eat." Gunn said after Cordy and Fred had left and Dawn quickly took the bottom box and handed it to Wesley who nodded smiling as he took it.

"It's peperoni, the other has anchovies...so." Gunn and Wes nodded.

"Say no more. It was nice meeting you Dawn," Gunn said and the two men left leaving Angel and Dawn alone.

"When is the funeral?" Angel finally asked, his voice so heartbroken it made her heart ache.

"Day after tomorrow. It's going to be privet, somewhere secluded. Willow, everyone is worried that if the demons knew she was dead they'd..." she trailed off but Angel knew what she meant. The thought of a demon desecrating Buffy's grave made him angry, she was a beautiful vibrant woman who had loved life she didn't deserve this or what could happen if the world knew she was gone.

"Did they send you?" Angel asked looking at her. He bit his lip as he noticed she wore a red shirt he'd seen on Buffy only once. Dawn had always been prone to steal Buffy's clothes but he knew why she wore it now, not only did it smell like Buffy but it was a reminder that she had been real. It was hard for him to accept that Dawn herself hadn't been real until the year he'd left Sunnydale.

He had so many memories of her, some good, some annoying and some dark. He still remembered the night Angelus had grabbed her in the high school the night after Buffy's birthday. The terror he'd smelled on her and from Buffy, the words. Dawn had been his goal just as much as Buffy had been. The difference was he planed to keep Dawn, to turn her because she reminded him of two important women in his past, Drusilla and Darla. More so the latter then the former.

"I volunteered. I needed to get out of Sunnydale and I thought I should be the one to tell you."

"Thank you," he replied and Dawn smiled slightly.

"Your welcome."

**††††††††††**

"We should head out by sunset." Dawn looked over at the brooding vampire. He had offered her his bed the night before since none of the other rooms were suitable for human life and he'd slept in a large chair on the far wall next to the closet. She'd felt bad for that. Now she layed on the bed, her back against a pillow and headboard looking through a box of things Angel had kept of Buffy's.

Mostly letters, pictures and two rings she knew had a sad history behind them. She wondered if she should ask Angel if Buffy could be buried in hers but decided better of it. She didn't think Buffy would have wanted Angel to part with it even if it was to lay her to rest.

"Agreed." Short and sweet.

"I hear Spike is in Sunnydale?"

"You worried about your childe Angel?"

"No need to tease Dawnie, and though William annoys me and has this way about him that pisses me off at times he is still my childer."

"You know that always confused me."

"What did?"

"How Spike was your childe, and he refers to you as his sire but in the books it says Dru sired him. Is that wrong?"

"Not it's true. Drusilla sired Spike but she was much to child like and insane to raise him properly. So I did, Darla wanted little to do with him, he annoyed her more then he did me. But then for the longest time so did Dru."

Dawn laughed. "How did we get from talking about Buffy to talking about your family ties?" Angel smiled sadly.

"Maybe we're not ready to let go yet?"

"I already have. I let go the day after it happened, I held on with mom and I tried to bring her back..."

"...But what you got back wasn't human, wasn't your mother." Dawn sighed.

"Exactly. Sometimes I wonder if she'd have died if the monks had not made me from Buffy."

"I don't think that has anything to do with why Joyce died. Sometimes bad things happen to good people Dawnie."

"Buffy used to say that to me. Like when Celia died, you know she was the same age as me almost and we both got sick around the same time. I know those are fake memories but when she died I wondered why I hadn't."

"Those memories may be fake Dawn but you're real. Take it from a vampire with a super sense of smell. Your real." Dawn smiled.

_It's blood Dawn, it's just like mine, Summer's blood._

"Thanks Angel."

"Your Welcome."

**††††††††††**

"Deadboy, I'd say it was nice to see you but I'd be lying," Xander greeted as he opened the door to the Summers home. It was around ten and he and Anya were the only ones there besides Willow and Tara.

"Nice to see you too Harris," Angel snapped and Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Will you two act your age please," she said and tossed her bag down inside the door before smiling at Willow and Tara halfheartedly.

"Dawn, I'm glad your back," Willow said hugging the teenager.

"Angel, I'm sorry about...Buffy," she said turning to the taller vampire.

"Yeah, I am too," he replied the grief clear on his face.

"Dawn ar-re y-you hun-hungry?" Tara asked, her stutter worst with the arrival of someone she hadn't met. Angel looked at her and smiled slightly, nodding. He could see why Willow fell for her, she had a innocence and shy nature which drew someone in and long light brown hair and big blue eyes, a pretty face and voluptuous body. Though he wouldn't lie and say the fact Willow was gay hadn't been a surprise because it had been but he found the two looked good together.

"No, I ate on the way here. I'm gonna go up to bed though in Buffy's room," Dawn said, her voice softer at the end and she looked behind her to meet brown eyes.

"Angel you want to settle in as well. I'd offer you my bed but uh...it's smaller so I was thinking I could make you a cot in Buffy's floor. "

"Whoa, wait, you're letting him sleep in Buffy's room, with you?" Xander asked and Anya smiled at the two.

"Are you two..."

"No Anya!" Everyone but Angel and Dawn yelled knowing where it was going. While Angel didn't Dawn did and her cheeks flushed a little as she shook her head.

"No Anya, an yes Xander.

**††††††††††**

"I'm sorry for getting you in trouble with Xander." Dawn looked from where she layed on the bed down to Angel who seemed to be staring at the ceiling.

"Xander isn't my father, he'll get over it."

"You never did tell me how you dusted that vampire so quickly tonight."

"I told you the key had unlocked inside me didn't I? It means that I'm back to being what I was before, just without the curse of being a floaty green ball. My memories of being the Key, an Old One, a god, is blurry and few and far between and I don't have all the powers I had then. The super-strength, speed, agility, reflexes, partial invulnerability, healing, hearing they're all here. Probably more powerful then a Slayer if only by a little, and I can still make portals but only to locations in this world. When I became more human then god I lost most my powers." Dawn looked at him again and scrunched up her nose.

"I'm sorry I'm confusing you aren't I?" Angel chuckled.

"Not really, I'm glad you'll be able to protect yourself." Dawn bit her lip.

"Good," she said. "So, I was wondering if you might like a helping hand in LA?"

"What?" Angel asked sitting up.

"It's just...LA is away from here and memories - fake or not - of Buffy and mom and I love the others, I do, but I have to move on and..."

"I understand...but you can't legally mo.."

"Without permission? Don't worry about that, I'll be eighteen next May and I have a fallback plan. They can't control me if I am emancipated."

"True but you'd need a parents signature."

"Then I'll get one," Dawn said and smirked down at him, her blue eyes lighting up in a way that made his demon purr and him think of Darla. "All I have to do is call Daddy."

"Are you sure you want to come back with me?"

"Yes, I'll leave the house with Willow and Tara. I can get some money from Daddy - I know he's been putting it in a bank account for us since he divorced mom, before that really - and help them pay off the house. Return to school I guess and help make sure Buffy didn't die I vane."

"Then I'd be happy to have you Dawn." Dawn smiled and layed back, Angel doing the same in the floor and there was a awkward silence for a few seconds when Dawn asked.

"Angel? Do you snore?" Angel smiled sadly. She may not look to much like her blonde haired, green eyed sister but she was definitely a Summer's girl.

"I don't know, it's been a while since anyone has been in the position to let me know."

**††††††††††**

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to save you Buffy," Angel said as he stood in front of the grave the next night with Dawn by his side, wrapped in a long wool coat to protect her from the chill of the night.

"You couldn't have saved her you know, she wanted to save me and the world and she did. She's resting now, after years of fighting the good fight she's finally resting," Dawn said a few tears falling from her eyes. She squeezed the cold hand she held and sniffed.

"She is, isn't she?"

"Of course, she died a hero, she was a champion there isn't anywhere but paradise for her." Dawn laughed softly at that shaking her head. "She's probably playing poker or checkers with mom and others right now. Or at a spa, they have spa's in heaven don't they?"

Angel smiled, chuckling at the image of Buffy in a majestic hot tub in a brightly white room with a glass of champagne, smiling at her mother and maybe other members of her family.

"I wouldn't know but I'm sure there is."

**††††††††††**

"You can't be serious Nibblet!" Spike exclaimed, his eyes wide as he stared at his gandsire and Dawn. The Scoobies were all assembled the day after Buffy's privet service. None could say that Dawn's news wasn't shocking because it was.

"I'm dead serius. I'm sorry, but I can't be here after everything that's happened. I need to move on if I decide to come back and with the Buffybot...there's no way I can handle seeing that thing everyday so soon."

"Dawn, I understand that you may need time to cope with everything," Giles began. "But Angel has a bussiness of his own to run and you are only seventeen. The whole point of the Buffybot is so your father wont take you away."

"No, the Buffybot is to make sure the demons don't try and take the Hellmouth." Dawn sighed. "Guys I love you but I am going. I'll finish my senior year at Hemery in LA and maybe in a year I'll be able to come back, if I want too."

"The bit is old enough to decide what she wants to do," Spike said almost sadly. "But I don't like her being with the poof. I'd go along but I've already promised red to look out for the bot and Hellmouth."

"Well I think it's a bad idea with a capital 'BAD'!" Xander practically yelled.

"I don't care what you think is a bad idea, Angel won't hurt me and I don't know why you all think he will!" Dawn yelled.

"Oh I don't know maybe because he's a homicidal vampire when made too happy! If my memory recalls he held you by the throat and I don't think he was talking about having you and Buffy over for teas and crumpets!" Dawn glared at Xander, Angel growling in the boys direction at the same time Spike did. It was obvious the two vampires were protective of the girl.

"That was Angelus and if memory serves me right it's also a fake memory which means Angel has never hurt me, not when he was Angelus or now." Dawn then laughed. "Wait I take that back he has hurt me but that was when he left town without saying goodbye and I got over that a long time ago."

Angel winced as he stood by the blue eyed girl. He wished he stopped to say goodbye to the girl, but at the time he had all but forgotten that it wasn't just Buffy that would be upset with him leaving town.

"Dawn Xander is just upset," Willow said. "I understand you want to leave for a while and I don't mind you staying with Angel but your dad would never let you move away alone." Dawn smirked and Spike snickered.

"You really don't know the bit that well do you red?" he said. Dawn pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open, hit one button and waited the phone at her ear. Seeing Willow about to ask she held up one finger and then she got this look of excitement and joy on her face but the look in her eyes was pure mischief, almost to the point of making everyone twitch with just how much this seemingly innocent girl was capable of.

"Daddy!" she gasped out sounding every bit like a teenaged girl who was happy to see her father, or hear him as it may be. Unfortunatly only Spike and Angel could hear both sides of the conversation.

"Lily-bug is that you?" Angel and Spike both wondered why her father was calling her that, but then realized it was probably because her middle name was Lily.

"Of course," Dawn said, smirking as she rolling her eyes. "I need to ask you something. I know it may seem sudden but...I was wondering if you'd sign some papers for me."

"Of course pumpkin, what is it?"

"Empication forms."

"Dawn why would you..."

"Now Daddy just listen. I know it's sudden but Buffy has so much to do these days with college and work. Since mom died she's been taking such good care of me but I think I need to get away. Be the adult for once." The scoobs could hardly believe what they were hearing. They never realized Dawn could lie so well. Spike on the other hand was holding back laughter.

"I see. Is Buffy okay with this?"

"I've already ran it over with Buffy. She didn't want to let me go so soon, I mean I'll be eighteen soon and collage which I wanted to apply for in LA so I'd be leaving before long anyways but she knows it's just something I have to do."

"Well okay, I can have the papers drawn up by tommarrow and mailed to you in a week. Maybe less. I also have been meaning to send you and Buffy some money, Buffy's bank imformation as well as getting you set up to be able to get into the account anyways."

"Actually I'm already in LA. Summer has already began here and Georgy, you remember Georgy don't you?"

"Sweet girl who lived next door?"

"That's her." Dawn rolled her eyes. So easy. "She wanted me to come stay a week or two and Buffy had a friend of hers, Willow, drive me out here. So if you in LA or California I can drive on out myself and we can take care of everything there. How's Candy by the way?"

"She's fine, I'll tell her you said hello."

"You do that. So is day after tomarrow okay with you?"

"Of course Lily-bug, I'll expect you at five?"

"Five it is," Dawn said. "Bye Daddy." She flipped the phone shut, smirked and put it away.

"Mission accomplished."

"I guess we really have no choice but to let you," Giles said.

"No, you don't."**  
><strong>


End file.
